British foreign policy after Brexit: losing Europe and finding a role
| Author | Juliet Kaarbo,Ryan Beasley,Kai Oppermann |
| DOI | 10.1177/0047117819864421 |
| Published date | 01 June 2020 |
| Date | 01 June 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0047117819864421
International Relations
2020, Vol. 34(2) 133 –156
© The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0047117819864421
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British foreign policy
after Brexit: losing Europe
and finding a role
Kai Oppermann
Chemnitz University of Technology
Ryan Beasley
University of St Andrews
Juliet Kaarbo
University of Edinburgh
Abstract
British foreign policy stands at a turning point following the 2016 ‘Brexit’ referendum. Drawing
on role theory, we trace the United Kingdom’s efforts to establish new foreign policy roles as
it interacts with the concerned international actors. We find that the pro-Brexit desire to ‘take
back control’ has not yet translated into a cogent foreign policy direction. In its efforts to avoid
adopting the role of isolate, the United Kingdom has projected a disoriented foreign policy
containing elements of partially incompatible roles such as great power, global trading state,
leader of the Commonwealth, regional partner to the European Union (EU) and faithful ally
to the United States. The international community has, through processes of socialisation and
alter-casting, largely rejected these efforts. These role conflicts between the United Kingdom
and international actors, as well as conflicts among its different role aspirations, have pressed
UK policies towards its unwanted isolationist role, potentially shaping its long-term foreign
policy orientation post-Brexit.
Keywords
Brexit, British foreign policy, role conflict, role theory
Corresponding author:
Kai Oppermann, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz 09107, Germany.
Email: kai.oppermann@phil.tu-chemnitz.de
864421IRE0010.1177/0047117819864421International RelationsOppermann et al.
research-article2019
Article
134 International Relations 34(2)
The 2016 British referendum decision to leave the European Union (EU) represents a
major rupture in Britain’s international position.1 Brexit has sparked intense debate about
Britain’s place in the world and will require ‘the largest rewiring of British foreign policy
since World War II’.2 Pre-Brexit, Britain’s role orientation as an influential actor on the
world stage3 was anchored in its EU membership which stood out as the ‘inner circle’4
of Britain’s broader international leverage. Leaving the EU will thus remove a central
pillar of British foreign policy and lead to a fundamental change in Britain’s international
role. At the same time, how this reorientation of British foreign policy will play out is
still uncertain. While the ‘taking back control’ message of the ‘Leave’ campaign fore-
grounded the enhanced sovereignty Britain would achieve, specific foreign policy direc-
tions any gains in sovereignty afforded were not clearly articulated. Moreover, most of
Britain’s international partners were critical of Brexit before the referendum and have
since developed their own views on what Brexit signifies5 for Britain’s future place in
international politics.6 Central to this question is Britain’s ability to simultaneously
enhance its autonomy and find meaningful foreign policy roles for itself while avoiding
becoming an isolated state.
This article aims to navigate the international debates and uncertainty around Britain’s
post-Brexit foreign policy at this early but critical juncture.6 We use role theory to dem-
onstrate how Britain is being socialised into foreign policy roles through interactions
with other states in the international system.7 Specifically, we focus on Britain’s role
location process8 since the referendum, identifying a set of foreign policy roles that
Britain has either casted for or rejected and tracing how role expectations of other rele-
vant international actors have affected these efforts. We argue that role conflicts between
Britain’s conceptions of its own roles and international expectations towards Britain,
along with the tensions and inconsistencies between the different roles Britain seeks to
play, have not only increased uncertainty but may also be contributing to Britain’s
unwanted drift towards greater isolationism. While the economic and political outcome
of Brexit is not yet clear, the early socialisation process reveals the core prospects of
Britain’s role on the world stage and illuminates the long-term boundaries and opportuni-
ties for Britain’s post-Brexit foreign policy orientation.
Our analysis builds on previous research using role theory to understand British foreign
policy.9 The benefits of mapping the future of British foreign policy through role theory are
twofold. First, this perspective emphasises the relational and interactive nature of roles that
states play in the international arena. Just as people cannot play the role of teachers unless
others take up the role of students, states cannot adopt a role for themselves unless this role
is accepted by other states. Britain’s foreign policy after Brexit will not be defined simply
by what role Britain wants to play, but equally by what role other states let Britain play.
Second, role theory provides a broad perspective on the foreign policy orientation of post-
Brexit Britain, moving us beyond the day-to-day politics of Brexit and towards more fun-
damental role interaction processes that are playing out, thus offering ‘a means of
interpreting current events in the light of their long-term implications’.10
We propose that Brexit significantly transforms roles available to and expected for
Britain and offer a role theoretical take on British foreign policy for the post-Brexit envi-
ronment. This environment involves a collision between Britain’s preferred roles and
those acceptable to international society. Empirically, our main purpose is to contribute
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